As per the press communiqué of ICCAT Fabio Hazin, Chairman of ICCAT, said that the decision taken by CITES not to include bluefin tuna in its Appendix I certainly enhances and reaffirms the responsibility of ICCAT to properly manage the bluefin tuna fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean.
He further said that the management measures adopted by ICCAT last year to rebuild the stocks of the species were sound and in full conformity with the scientific advice. he told that the measures were indeed the inauguration of a new era in ICCAT, in which management measures not in full conformity with scientific advice are no longer a possibility.
He assured that setting Total Allowable Catches beyond the levels scientifically advised as necessary to ensure sustainability of tuna stocks under ICCAT’s mandate shall no longer be acceptable to the CPCs.
He concluded that the roles of ICCAT and CITES in regards of the conservation of the Atlantic bluefin tuna should not be understood as competing ones. on the contrary he believes that both organisations have much to gain through a more efficient cooperation. The need to develop means for a closer and stronger cooperation between both institutions has already been included, as a priority, in the agenda of ICCAT’s next meeting, admits Hazin.
